The US exempted 295 steel products from import tariffs levied a year ago, including wine-barrel strips for Illinois Tool Works Inc and zinc-coated sheets that Sharp Corp uses to make microwave ovens.
The action brings to 995 the number of products spared duties since President George W. Bush imposed the tariffs of as much as 30 percent on March 20, 2002. Today's exclusions cover about 400,000 tons of steel, 10 percent of the amount requested by steel consumers, who said the tariffs were creating supply shortages.
"More people were helped then, frankly, we expected," said Lewis Leibowitz, a lawyer who represents consumers such as Emerson Electric Co, the biggest maker of power supplies for telecommunications equipment. "But exclusions are no panacea."
A quarter of the 13 million tons of steel imports originally covered by the tariffs had already been exempted in subsequent months, according to the US Commerce Department.
Representatives of steel producers such as Nucor Corp and US Steel Corp said they didn't object to the exemptions, as they had to previous decisions, because the products listed today for the most part don't threaten the US industry.
"The system worked this time," said Thomas Danjczek, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, which represents Nucor and other companies that make steel from scrap.
Even with the tariffs, which were lowered to 24 percent yesterday, steel imports increased 4.8 percent last year to US$12.1 billion, according to the Census Bureau.
The administration imposed the tariffs to give US steel companies, which were falling into bankruptcy because of prices then at a two-decade low, room to restructure, Commerce Undersecretary Grant Aldonas said.
"The changes going on are necessary," Aldonas said. "But at the end of the day the steel industry in the US is going to come roaring back."
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